Fragments of Noir

Friday, 3 July 2026

They'll Accuse You

Just tell the truth and they'll accuse you of writing black humor.

Charles Willeford

Thursday, 2 July 2026

Life in the Shadows #66

In a Lonely Place

Blade Runner

The Servant

They Shoot Horses Don't They

Stranger on the Third Floor

Nightmare Alley

Blue Dahlia

Vertigo

Third Man

The Confirmist

Mildred Pierce

Rear Window

Double Indemnity

Carol

Criss Cross

Serpico

Out of the Past

Boardwalk Empire

Brighton Rock

Bad Times at the El Royale

Odds Against Tomorrow

Angel Heart

Wednesday, 1 July 2026

Jake is isolated, and as such has the power to root out causes and see things as they are, but it limits his power. Only an organized force like the police could take apart Cross's empire, but of course that force is constructed to defend Cross and others like him - to protect property. The small everyday justices are undermined by their selective worldview. Jake and Lou Escobar are set up as doubles and opposites. They worked together in Chinatown, are almost strange friends, but are vitally divergent.

RD Heath (on Chinatown)
New York Times
2002

image
Daniel Baxter

And Hoping

So you take the job and you settle down in the town. And, of course, neither one of 'em is right. They're just like all the others. The job stinks. You stink. And there's not a goddamned thing you can do about it. All you can do is go on like this. Other guys go on. The guy giving haircuts to dogs, and the guy sweeping up horse manure. Hating it. Hating yourself. And hoping.

Jim Thompson
A Hell of a Woman
1954

Tuesday, 30 June 2026

Downpour of Shadows #35

The Housemaid (1960)

Bringing Out the Dead

Knife in the Water

Heaven's Prisoners

Odd Man Out

Identity (2003)

Two Mrs Carrolls

Just Another Love Story

Phantom Lady

Accident

Three Days of the Condor

Oliver Twist

Light Sleeper

Bitter Rice

After Hours

Pale Flower

Red Rock West

Little of Either

But love and hate, he thought now, good and evil, lived side by side in the human heart, and not merely in differing proportions in one man and the next, but all good and all evil. One had merely to look for a little of either to find it all, one had merely to scratch the surface. All things had opposites close by, every decision a reason against it, every animal an animal that destroys it, the male the female, the positive the negative.